ON HURRICANES
by Wellies
Summary: A re-telling of Shippuden. AU
1. Chapter 1

1: hot air over sea

Months after Uchiha Sasuke's abduction during the Chunin Exams, the former Hyuuga heiress (and recovering stutterer) Hinata was the last to send off Uzumaki Naruto, the unnoticed Kyuubi container. Haruno Sakura subjected herself to training under Senju Tsunade. Teams 8, 10, and Guy resolved to expand their skill sets. Three years fly by quickly, and even the youngest of the Rookie 9 reached the ripe age of eighteen years. Here the story continues!

* * *

The Sannin had been an odd travel-fellow; sometimes he had shut himself in to scribble away on reams of paper. Other times he had used Naruto as a wingman at the bar (to no avail, mind, Naruto had quickly discovered that Jiraiya was still hung up on Tsunade). They had fallen into a routine—every couple of months they would travel to a new town, settle there, train, and study. Their last night in each town was marked by a merry night of drinking. At first, Naruto thought Jiraiya was choosing locations arbitarily; it wasn't until Naruto had spied a map Jiraiya was reviewing that he figured out the old man was choosing places with his favorite meals and liquor.

Green and greener. The place of his birth really had not changed at all. The sun was just starting its descent down the celestial stairs when they hustled through the Konoha gate. The last couple of days had been quick travel, mostly at Naruto's urgence. The minute they had stepped foot in Hi no Kuni, his skin had started itching, as if every cell was pulling him toward the place of his birth. His sleep had been light and full of vivid dreams, visions of his teammates, his home, and the other rookies. He woke up with the smell of benzoin resin hanging around his nose. Once he had asked Jiraiya if he'd been carrying some, and after the man's quizzical look, Naruto knew it was just him.

 _Konoha hasn't changed a bit._ Naruto thought, a senbon swishing around his mouth as he gnawed on its end. His eyes roamed around the familiar streets before settling on a familiar landmark.

"Sakura," he said to the back of a pink head. The woman turned, green eyes passing over him quickly before doubling back, squinting.

"Who?"

"It's me, Naruto."

The woman titled her head, eyes running over his form again.

"…Nanato."

" _Hah?_ "

"Naohito."

"Wrong again."

"…"

"…"

"…Umemoto Naosuke."

"Uzumaki! Uzumaki Naruto!"

Sakura blinked for a moment before a pretty, but depthless smile came over her face. "Gomen, stranger-san, I used to have a teammate by that name, but he left three years ago. Hasn't sent me a single letter or anything." And with that she turned around and continued on her walk down the uncrowded road, whistling a tune for good measure. Mouth ajar, Naruto was stock-still for a few beats before his legs ate up the paved road as Sakura sped up her pace.

"Sak—"

"I see you took my advice."

"What? 'Bout the milk?"

"Puberty seemed to agree with you."

"Eh? You sayin' I look nice, Leader-sama?"

"Your height. You were the runt before."

Naruto ignored the jab, sticking his hands in his pockets and skipping around her. "Leader-chan thinks I'm handsome, Leader-chan thinks I'm haaaandsome~!"

He worked hard to not wince as Sakura pressed a heavy foot onto his. "You're built like a gazelle on stilts," she deadpanned.

Naruto stopped and frowned.

"And you stink. When was the last time you showered?"

Naruto gave himself a quick pit check and met Sakura's eyes, "I thought you would be glad to see me again, Sakura."

Sakura stared back impassively. She moved past the taller boy, tossing over her shoulder, "I'm going to Ichiraku. You're welcome to follow me."

"You paying?"

"What, you broke?"

* * *

Naruto's initial estimation of his home was false. He was a big boy. He could admit that to himself, he pondered quietly as he stared over his bowl to survey the ramen restaurant. It had grown a bit in size since the last time he'd come—the bathrooms were much more luxurious than what he remembered; he had stepped in to properly sniff himself once they'd selected a place to sit. Gone was the single unisex commode with a poorly painted sign; instead Ichiraku had invested in separate bathrooms with sturdy wood stalls. The urinals in the men's room had been clean and smelled clinical, a welcome change from the bathrooms he'd used on the road. Naruto didn't have to pee, but he'd considered just trying to pass a little just to experience what it felt like.

His teammate had changed, too. Her hitai-ate was still sewn into the fabric across her left shoulder, but the outfit had changed into a short, sleeveless, olive dress with two slits at the sides. Underneath were fine-mesh compression shorts. Sakura had retired her kunai pouch entirely. Her pink head was cut into a bob which barely reached the lobe of her ears, perfectly layered and split evenly down the middle—no flyways. There were tiny wrinkles around her eyes and slight lines around her mouth; it appeared Sakura had done a lot of frowning. From what she had divulged about her training with Tsunade, it wasn't all that surprising. Two weeks after his departure, Tsunade-baachan had started her on hospital shifts with Shizune twice a week, where she primarily observed. Every other day she spent three to four hours memorizing the human anatomy, studying its weaknesses and its strengths. At her sensei's encouragement, she joined training sessions with Guy and Lee. At first she could only stand twice a week, but eventually she was with them four to five times a week. Shizune and Tsunade would focus on her medical ninjutsu on the weekends. A year passed that way. By year two she was studying the effects of herbal and manufactured medicines on the body as well as how to heal fractures and mild internal organ damage. By year three Sakura was working in the hospital daily, often spiralling around surgeries and cases of chakra exhaustion.

"How's Kaka-sensei?"

The Haruno woman snorted into her soup. "Same old. He's been reluctant to stay anywhere too long, you know, especially after the Exam."

Naruto considered this before he asked, "And Sasuke?"

Sakura's face went blank.

"You know we never debriefed after the Exam," Naruto prompted.

She took a moment before she said, "I suppose you weren't there." She waited until Naruto nooded his head in agreement.

"Well," she started, pushing her bowl away, "it started with Sasuke taking the Curse Seal from Orochimaru. He was always insufferable before, but after the Forest of Death it was as if something had corrupted his chakra. And then the preliminaries—"

"I was there for that. Short battle."

They both took a moment to recall the brutality of the preliminaries. While Sasuke's battle had been appropriately vicious, his demeanor had been off. Sakura recalled how he'd egged her on, threatening her with the appearance of his kekkei-genkai, daring her to tell someone about the curse mark. For a moment, she had been petrified.

"What about the recovery?"

"You know we followed the nin from Oto. We thought we were protecting an asset of Konoha, and we thought Sasuke had been taken against his will."

"Well, he was," Naruto corrected, but Sakura was looking at him strangely. He met her gaze with steady eyes. Sasuke had been reticent and a bit of an ass, but he wasn't a deserter.

"We thought so. But our team eventually split off to face members of the Sound Four. Kiba was left to deal with the man who was carrying Sasuke. According to Kiba, Sasuke woke up—" at this Naruto's eyebrow raised "—and we found Kiba among burned trees and looking mighty scorched. He had inhaled a lot of smoke, but he coughed out enough for us to understand Sasuke had attacked him." Sakura broke eye contact to consider the broth in her bowl, eventually drawing it to her and taking a slurp.

"There has to be more to the story."

Sakura hummed in disapproval as she set her bowl down again, wiping the back of her hand. "What else do you need to know? There's no explanation for attacking another Konoha nin."

Naruto shook his head.

"You're unconvinced."

"He was our teammate. He deserves a chance to explain himself."

"He hasn't come back to the village. If he wanted to plead his case he could've."

"It's unlikely he decided to just leave. There has to be a reason."

"What was keeping him in the village? He has no family. He lived alone. He didn't talk to us. The reason doesn't matter. He injured his fellow nin and now he's labeled missing. It's a waste of energy to try to determine why he left."

Before Sakura had finished Naruto was shaking his head. "His reason is important."

"Is there a valid reason for hurting another nin?" The question came out so fast and hung in the air between them. Naruto took a moment to sip out of his own bowl.

Sakura took a moment to collect herself before she leaned in and lowered her voice. "I led a group of nin on a spur-of-the-moment mission to collect a valuable Konoha shinobi who also happened to be my teammate. We had painted houses together, talked together, fought together, and traveled. And I gathered four people whom I had never worked with to rescue him, to fight nin whose strength was unknown. One of the group had her first kill in that forest. And for all our committment, our comrade had gotten away, on his own agency, and hurt one of our own on his way out. I had to explain to our sensei what I had decided to do. I had to explain to T&I. I had to go to Analysis. I had to return Kiba to his teammates and apologize to _their_ sensei. I had to check in with Tenten. All because I decided to believe _our_ teammate, no matter how distant or willfully disengaged, would _never_ forsake the village. Forsake us. I risked many people to try to recover Sasuke."

The _and I won't make the same mistake_ was implied. Naruto considered her before he tore into a wrapped plastic straw, balled up the paper part, and threw it at his teammate, all without breaking eye contact.

"Well," he said lightly, "we can give it one more try before calling it quits, can't we?"

Sakura leaned back, fishing for the little paper ball and hitting him right between the eyes.

"Did it feel good to get it all out, Leader-chan? That's the most I've ever heard you talk about yourself."

"Don't be rude."

"How is everyone else?" Naruto asked, slouching into his seat, absently rubbing his nose. Damned benzoin.

"Good. Team Ten has been on missions. I've been training with Lee and the rest."

"And Team Eight?" Naruto asked, eyes shifting to trace the grain on the table with a studied casualness.

"I actually haven't seen them much," Sakura mused. "I take tea with Shino sometimes, and I know Hinata convinces Shikamaru to play her in shogi occasionally." The pink haired woman graciously ignored the spark of emotion that played across Naruto's face.

"You never told me about what happened during the Suna Invasion," Sakura said. "Heard some wild stories."

"Oh? Do share."

"You think you're clever? Trying to get me to tell you what I know. Just like the folks in T&I."

Naruto just smiled in response. Sakura looked around in mock-secrecy and said in a stage whisper, "I heard you fought a container with a demon inside."

"Oh?"

"And Shikamaru was just about useless until it came to dispelling whatever newfangled barrier Hinata invented. I heard you were there as well."

"You're missing the best part."

"Which is?"

Naruto leaned forward, cocking an eyebrow as he offered, "Ino found a way to possess a puppet."

Sakura let out a disbelieving whistle.

"And stuffed her soul into that one Suna-nin's puppet. Lied in wait and then came alive. The nin was chased around. That must've been the first time Kankuro truly lost control since he started puppeteering."

"That was brilliant on Ino's part. You'd never suspect she used to be such a frivolous chit in the Academy."

Naruto chuckled as he said, "The funniest thing about that whole day was that Ino's stomach wasn't right fo rhours after her possession. And she kept walking around as if she wasn't used to four limbs anymore; I guess six was more comfortable after she had been in Karasu's form for so long. It took us hours to find her actual body."

"How interesting."

Naruto rubbed at his legs, "We've been sitting in the same place for a long time."

"Can't sit still?"

"Call it what you want. I'm a bit bored."

"I have a suggestion."

* * *

Sakura, it turned out, was borderline cruel. He was not more than four minutes into sparring with her, and he could already tell he'd have bruises in the morning. She had been aiming for odd places as well—the arm pit, the fleshy part between his thumb and index finger, thrusting a spear-like hand up into his stomach. He didn't mind any of that; he assumed she was taking petty shots since he'd not contacted her in the last three years. That was understandable. The issue came when her palm came dangerously close to his adam's apple, and Naruto leaned out of her reach and snatched her hand with a swiftness Sakura had not anticipated.

In short order he had wrestled her into a punishing hold, twisting her wrists in ways liable to pop them, his front to her back. Sakura gritted her teeth, pushed chakra to her legs and pushed the two of them into the trunk of a nearby tree. Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Sakura did not allow the ache in her wrists stop her from meeting Naruto in a blur of legs and fists. He did not relent, and Sakura started to realize just _how_ much Naruto had grown. His reach was significantly longer, he seemed to give no indication he felt any of the impact of her hits. While definitely not exhausted, she predicted if it was a straight taijutsu battle, she would have to tap out.

She caught him make a quick sign and suddenly there were four more Narutos than normal. 16 limbs against her two. She ducked as two arms attempted to lock her in another hold. She side-stepped to avoid a kick to her gut. She allowed a couple of smaller hits to land, but it wasn't until she got tired of tanned arms and gray clothes and a fist grazed her temple that a vein began to throb. And he. Just. Kept. Coming.

"Get—"

A foot caught her in the side.

"Off—"

She felt the breath of too many bodies, too many lanky, gangly doofuses.

With a cry, she drove her fist into the earth and the ground shattered with a shake that displaced birds from their perches in trees. The sound of cracking pushed small animals deeper into the surrounding forest and a genin team in a nearby training ground took stock of their surroundings, bewildered.

The Narutos disappeared in poofs of smoke. With a swish of her arm, she cleared the air as her ears registered a low whistle. The boy she had been fighting was no where in sight, but she spied her sensei looking mildly around, orange book in his hand.

"Stressed, Sakura-kun?"

"Iie, Kaka-sensei," a deep, gravely voice said. Kakashi looked to a bright head of hair. "She's mad because I'm beating her."

His teacher observed him before asking, "When did you come back, Naruto?"

"Yes," said another voice, "please explain why you did not report to my office with Jiraiya. Inquiring minds would like to know."

"Baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "You look beautiful. How are you?"

The blonde Hokage crossed her arms, grass-green haori doing little to conceal her considerable cleavage. Her eyes were hard, yet held an odd light.

"Imagine my surprise when Jiraiya arrived alone," she said in response. But Naruto could see the tenderness in her expression as her arms reached out, and he smiled as he put his arms around her as well. All was well until he felt a sharp pain in his ear.

"Gotcha," said a distinctly un-Tsunade voice. Two hands put pressure on his ear, causing him to bend down and meet a sharp, bony knee. He let out something close to a groan as the image of Tsunade shimmered and Sakura reemerged from her genjutsu.

"Good job, Sakura-kun. Your use of genjutsu has improved; when did you weave the illusion?"

"The minute I dispelled Naruto's clones and the smoke covered the immediate area."

Naruto hacked a cough which his sensei and teammate ignored.

"So the Sakura I was speaking to was not you?"

"Hai, and I used Tsunade-sama's form in the meantime."

"Good choice. I couldn't tell the you on the playing field was genjutsu. Your Tsunade was a bit off—the voice did not have enough rasp. Otherwise the appearance was spot-on."

"Arigato, Kaka-sensei."

"That's a natural danger of using genjutsu to impersonate those your target may know, however—" another cough from Naruto "—it was astute of you to include me in the range of the jutsu. That has proper real-world applications."

"It was a last minute decision; I estimated the distance you stood from me, but I had no real way of knowing—"

"Why not overshoot?"

"My chakra reserves are still recovering; I was in a surgery yesterday. Additionally, it's just not an efficient expenditure—"

"Stop usin' words I don't know how to spell, dattebayo," said a cross voice. Kakashi and Sakura cast uncaring eyes to the Uzumaki, who had affected a dramatic, fetal position since anyone had last paid him attention.

"Something wrong, Uzumaki-san?"

"Yes," he declared. "I am quite sure I'm dying."

There was a pause before:

"Don't leave me here, -ttebayo!"

* * *

The large windows in his apartment did a fine job of revealing just how dusty his home had become in his absence. The couch slouched, the sheets of his bed were just as wrinkled as he left them. He wiped a finger in sheet-like dust that accumulated on his kitchen island before he bent to check if he'd stocked any cleaning supplies under his sink.

Nope.

Now he was in a convenience store, searching for a duster, some disinfectant, and a dustpan. He had turned the corner of an aisle, intent on checking out when a smaller body ran into him with a feminine "oof."

"Forgive me," said a voice Hinata half-remembered. "I didn't mean to run inta ya."

Piqued, Hinata took a step back to try to match the face to the tone. It was a male, with yellow-blonde hair and mellow blues. It was the whiskers that tipped her off.

"Okaeri (Welcome home), Uzumaki-kun," she said. "How have you been?"

"Hisashiburi (Long time no see), Hinata." It had indeed been a long time since he'd last laid eyes on his first-ever friend. She was not much taller than she'd been when he'd left, hair now long. Her adolescent bang was absent; she now fashioned her hair after her sensei, from Naruto's recollection. She was dressed in loose, cream colored pants and a long-sleeved shirt with a _v_ neckline. It was a simple cut, but flattering on her figure all the same, hinting at a small waist and widened hips. After taking stock, Naruto was content to keep his eyes on Hinata's face.

It was thinner, its heart shape pronounced, with a delicate jaw he could probably fit in one of his hands. Her brows were still dark and thin, but arched—a thicker brow would have distracted from the wide set of Byakugan eyes, rimmed with thick, black lashes. The ex-Hyuuga's crowning glory, however, was the black mark meant to insure her kekkei genkai would never be harvested, even after her death. It sat there, raised like a scar against Hinata's forehead. She wore it uncovered, unlike many who had been branded with the Caged seal. The serenity of her gaze was at direct odds with the violent hand her clan members had dealt her, and, if you asked Naruto, the proof of her clan's cruelty would live forever on her skin.

"You look strong, Uzumaki-kun. Travelling must've agreed with you!" Hinata exclaimed. Her voice had settled into something feminine and rich, no hint of rasp like Sakura's.

Naruto made a noise of agreement. "Being away for years was fun, but definitely not fun for my apartment." He shrugged his shoulders to draw attention to the bottles of product in his hands.

Hinata let out a small, agreeing sound that flipped Naruto's stomach. "Your apartment must've put up quite the protest while you were away."

"And now I have to pay the price. I hate cleaning."

"Messy Uzumaki-kun," she teased. They shared a look before Hinata blinked and opened her mouth to say something.

"Ne, Hinata, let's train sometime together! Like we used to."

The ex-Hyuuga was already nodding. "Let's do that."

"I'm not sure what mission rotations will look like, now that I'm back but I'll let you know when I'm free."

"I understand," Hinata said, not bothering to mention her own missions frequently took her out of the country for long spans of time. In fact, Team 8, affectionately nicknamed the Bingo Team by the Analysis Division, had been instructed not to tell anyone when they were due to depart and return; most of their missions were classified by principle of their work. She was due to debrief later on tonight; Kiba, Shino, and Hinata would be leaving early the next morning for a three-day trip to the Valley of Hell in Yugakure.

For the past year, they had been trailing a money path wealthy families and hidden villages had left in the wake of paying the Akatsuki. After all, Shino had argued when he first proposed the endeavor, they were a group of hostile missing nin with enemies all over; they had no group's goodwill to rely on. They had to pay for their activites somehow. He reasoned Team 8 could at least determine the names and abilities of their members by reconstructing their client list. Their search had started over a year ago in Ame, where they'd been doing general sweeps until they'd caught a break and chanced over a grave listed as "Swift-Footed Kyusuke," a man who was "a comrade-in-arms who strove for a red, peaceful dawn." The small cloud had caused them pause. A couple inquiries in the area led them to believe someone had anonymously paid for the grave, an unnamed woman with blue hair. But no one knew much about a woman with blue hair—they were quite common. So they'd dropped the money angle and relied on cataloging inconsistencies in Bingo Books again.

Following a hunch, an excursion to Iwa had lead a disguised Kiba to hone his throwing skills at a little pottery studio for two months, where an old woman with a proclivity for beautiful, long-haired men had chattered happily about all the people who resembled Kiba, and didn't she just _love_ blond hair? _She_ had been a blonde once, that was, of course, before all the grays… Her favorite client had been a gifted handbuilder—he _loved_ her porcelain clay bodies she mixed in-house, and it was at his suggestion she tweak the amount of iron in one of her earthenware blends. It was through her they learned of a little upstart who had stolen a kinjutsu from Iwakagure which allowed him to weave chakra into clay. The woman, bless her foolish soul, couldn't recall a name (Daisuke? Daichi?). But they'd found a Deidara in a rare, outdated Bingo Book. From there, at Kiba's suggestion, they had started making tentative inquiries in smaller hidden villages. Hinata had posed as the assistant for a reclusive nin-turned-author who was writing a history of stolen kinjutsu.

So they'd learned about a Takigakure (which, conveniently, was not far from Iwa) jutsu which rendered turned the innards of a shinobi to those of a ragdoll. They couldn't find specifics of the technique, but finally had a solid name: Kakuzu. After a couple weeks of false leads, they had resolved to following the money again. Kumogakure's interest in the "three-man team with an attached Hyuuga" had restricted both Team Guy's and Team 8's movements for a while. Team Bingo had contented itself to staking out bounty exchange stations with little expectation for progress.

It was just their luck. Their restriction to the Land of Fire coincided with the murder of one of the fire daiymo's twelve guardians. Imagine their amazement when they spotted two cloaked figures carrying what could only be a body bag to exchange master Zangei, who had previously been questioned about the suspicious characters who frequented his establishment. Hinata's Byakugan had revealed two figures with odd chakra systems and one whose innards had been replaced kilometers of thread.

Bingo.

That night had been spent in celebration back in Konoha. The three of them had shared cups of tea and groans of disappointment. Twelve months of work had only yielded one (1) name, a probable recruit from Iwa, and a faceless woman. It wasn't until Hinata recalled the unusual three-bladed scythe on the back of Kakazu's travel partners, late into the night, that they'd regained hope. They'd checked with weapon makers, and one had recognized the style as characteristic of a weapons family out of Yugakure.

Preliminary scouting revealed the weapons family business was now a popular tourist destination, a place where kids could go _ooooh_ at pointy stuff. No one remembered who had last ordered a three-bladed scythe. Fortunately, the hidden village had a dedicated museum, and even had a Bingo Book they allowed visitors to flip through while wearing cotton gloves. There they found the likeness of a young man whom Hinata had seen accompanying Kakuzu. Hidan, Team 8 learned, was responsible for the slaughter of a blood-drinking clan who lived in the Valley of Hell.

It was with these thoughts Hinata met with the Inuzuka and Aburame.

* * *

This is the companion to ON SHINOBI, though it can be read separately.

Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

2: tropical disturbance

The night the Godaime Kazekage fell was a quiet one. The sand he used in the fight against the Akatsuki had returned to the ground with little protest. All was silent along the expanse of land, meager terracotta-colored buildings huddling to watch. The civilians of Suna had not seen in the dark of the kidnapping night, but word traveled; it was currency passed behind cupped hands and hushed breath. No one knew where their Kazekage had been taken. It was beyond the expertise of a civilian to understand just how the shinobi of their hidden village intended to retrieve him. So instead, over the days, the common people traded stories of their Godaime's kindness. They walked the spice markets he'd once frequented, they remembered to make music and be merry. Gaara had never taken part in their debauchery, but the civilians suspected he loved the rhythm of their drums. Suna, for days after their Kage was stolen, almost had a heartbeat, so loud did its residents beat their drums in his absence.

The renewed Team Kakashi had heard of Gaara's abduction and the poisoning of Kankuro. Naruto's wheedling had caused them to stand in Tsunade's office, where the Uzumaki man had met Tsunade's raised eyebrow with a mild expression.

"You have not been in Konoha for more than two weeks."

"Un."

"You've not taken a standard A-class mission in three years."

"Un."

"Yet you want to attempt an S-rank mission. To Suna. And meddle in their affairs without an explicit request for assistance. Is that correct?"

"Un."

"Hn. And you two—" Here Tsunade nodded to Sakura and Kakashi while shaking out a familiar roll of tobacco leaves. "—you intend to accompany him as well?"

Kakashi nodded as Sakura drew a breath. "If I may speak, sensei."

"Speak freely, student."

"An attempt to aid Suna would only further strengthen the alliance between our hidden villages; even if we are unable to recover their Kage, it is unlikely Suna would hold a grudge. Additionally, it is rumoured one of their nin was poisoned by an Akatsuki member. To be able to research an attack on a group of interest to Konoha in such a way is rare. It would be unwise to ignore the opportunity."

"And you think the three of you are the best to track down the Akatsuki, engage them, and recover the fifth Kazekage, all the while collecting and analyzing data?"

"We recognize a need for manpower, Tsunade-sama. We offer ourselves to attend to it."

"How diplomatic," Tsunade said, puffing on her cigar.

"Every moment we spend is a moment we could spend on the road," stated Naruto, whose eyes had gone steely. "Hokage-sama."

"It is just your luck the administration had identified and recognized the same issues you vocalised, Sakura," Tsunade said, neatly ignoring the blond in the room. "I imagine you will be relieved to hear you are slotted to join this mission as an offensive component to compliment the mixed-talent chunin team with whom you will be partnered."

Both Sakura and Naruto let out a sharp breath.

"They're a team used to rough travel; I suspect they are waiting at the gates for you all. I assume you've packed?"

* * *

Early in their training, Yuuhi Kurenai had instilled in her team inalienable rules of operation, tried and proven by nin Kurenai had fought with. Some were adages: _a hungry man will always eat._ Other maxims were simple: _when observing, do not engage; repetition of technique risks discovery._ Others were bits of common sense that often eluded Konoha shinobi: _do not confirm or deny assumptions of ability; there is no honor in violence._ Others were directives for their growth as a team: _give anger no room to fester; burdens should be shared; what one has, all have._ A solicitous scientist, Kurenai had mothered the worst of their traits away in a wild and demanding series of trials (training sessions). She had cross-bred her experience with their willingness to produce a codominant, pastel-pink sort of functionality. It had taken root in Team Bingo, intertwining their workflows to produce their own nindo: _better together, better apart._

By now it was a formality, more of a ritual rather than a necessity, yet Team Kurenai still counted off their weapons prior to departing. They were in the middle of it when Team Kakashi came upon them.

*89," said Kiba.

"93," said Shino.

"69 senbon," said Hinata.

"130," said Kiba.

"113," said Shino.

"47 meters." This number was in regards to ninja wire.

"23."

"20."

"84 soldier pills."

"150."

"165."

With that count, they set about consolidating and re-rationing their resources. At the end of it, each of the trio had eighty-three kunai, one-hundred-and-four senbon, thirty meters of nin wire and an equivalent amount of bandages. The soldier pills split evenly, but it was far too trifling to stand try to count those out. Instead Hinata pressed a fresh jar of ointment into each of her teammates' palms.

"What a surprise," said Kakashi. "To be traveling with part of the Rookie Nine. I've heard a lot about your team."

Hinata smiled, offering the three shinobi jars of ointment. Kakashi inclined his head as he accepted his. "Just as cooperative as the rumors say."

Shino stepped forward. "We know your team is one of great large chakra reserves. We may not match you in pure power, but we are shinobi of stamina. We will follow your pace."

Kakashi noted the twin hilts peeking over the Aburame's back. Each was wrapped in black bandages that were near indistinguishable from the fabric of his pants. The young man's shirt was an olive green. It was still unsettling to see an Aburame without a coat; in fact, if he hadn't known Shino to be a member of the clan, he wouldn't have guessed him to be affiliated with anything besides Konoha. The hitai-ate would clue anyone in.

"Thank you for being so accomodating," Sakura acknowledged. She looked around before she asked, "Is Akamaru sitting this one out?"

"Iie," said Kiba. "Akamaru tends to travel in disguise." He nodded to some place on the ground, though Sakura didn't understand what he was attempting to bring to her attention. The tall man was decked out in all-tan apparel, the red fangs tattooed on his cheeks still as bright as they'd been in his youth.

"A trip to Tanzaku-gai can take a couple of hours if we move aggressively," Sakura said. "We may be able to reach Kaze no Kuni by noon tomorrow."

"We've made quicker trips. By tonight, we should be eighty kilometers outside of Suna, at the very least," Shino stated. "Why? Because all of us here are at the very least capable of such."

A bit taken aback, Team Seven took a look at the resolute faces of Eight.

"What Shino means to say," said the shortest member of their posse, decked head to toe in a light grey fabric, "is there is little need to limit yourselves on our behalf. We will follow."

"Then Hinata and Shino will take the rear. As sweepers and surveillance," Kakashi suggested. Sakura nodded her assent.

"Naruto and I will take point. Kakashi, Kiba—the middle."

* * *

They arrived at Suna breathless and anxious, feet tender from hours of pounding ground. Team Kurenai had only ingested a couple of soldier pills and begged off from formal introductions in order to rest before the tracking truly begun. In the meantime, Sakura had been ushered to the hospital where Kankuro laid.

His skin was pale, having been sheltered from Suna's harsh sun by his puppeteering robes. The man's shoulders were broad, his torso wide and square after the fashion of most male shinobi. His calves clenched and unclenched. The muscles in his upper thigh looked strained.

"How long has he been this way?"

"37 hours, Haruno-san," said a nameless nurse, standing a respectful distance away from Kankuro's cot.

Sakura gave a small hum, bending directly over the man. The nurse heard Sakura take a deep inhale.

"Do you smell anything?"

Sakura didn't answer, instead peeling back one of Kankuro's eyes and watched it dart around his socket.

"Belladonna and hemlock. Oleander, maybe, macerated in honey…?" the medic trailed off, trailing an arm down the face, watching the bottom half of her patient's body continue to spasm. "There must be something else. An advanced sedative would never cause this effect."

Sakura raised a hand to Kankuro's face, running a hand over his Adam's apple. Temari, who had just entered the room, thought it much resembled the touch of a lover, until she caught the cool, distant gaze of the Haruno woman.

"His jaw is clenched. He's in pain," Sakura observed. "A sedative and a pain inflictor." _Fascinating._

"What is your plan of action?" asked Temari, arms crossed. Sakura broke out of her reverie to face the blonde woman. Her eyes were hard, dressed in black robes with slits up the sides. She had a face similar to the working wives of artisan men in Konoha. Sometimes their husbands would injure themselves, loosing fingers or hands during a job. Staff would cart the bleeding men in during the wee hours of the morning (the prime time for accidents). Right behind them would be their wives. Their faces were always drawn, cheekbones sharp. It was something in the set of their chins. Sakura always imagined her patients would have an earful waiting for them at home.

"I believe the toxin is based in an elemental metal. Perhaps arsenic or mercury. However, there are too many variables to attempt to make an antidote to administer. While I can hazard a guess at what was in whatever poisoned him, there is always a possibility for me to make an inaccurate judgement," Sakura started. It would be safer to purge his entire body of the stuff, or at least remove enough so that it was nonlethal. "Who attacked him? Do you know?"

"An elder in our village said he was likely poisoned by a missing nin named Sasori. Kankuro was in pursuit of Gaara when he encountered him," Temari replied.

"Sasori…" the name was familiar to Sakura for some reason. She had half a mind to send a message to Tsunade, though she knew there was no time.

"Metal in the body should be removed quickly; there's a chance his heart could stop any time. Bring me three basins of saline. And some extra hands to hold him down. This will be painful."

At Temari's hand, several nin filed in, among them Sakura's teammates. Sakura gestured to the solemn nurse who was holding several basins, instructing her to put one near Kankuro's bedside table.

The Haruno waited until the nurses had secured Kankuro down to the table, Temari making a choice to hold down his shoulders. The women lo cked eyes, and Sakura felt struck with an awareness which made her whole body hot. She had intercepted such looks before. As if she were the only option left.

She would not mess this up.

"I will begin now," she declared evenly.

With one hand she gathered an orb of yellow-ish brine water, placing the other on Kankuro's right pectoral muscle. In one smooth motion, she pushed the orb down onto the left side of his chest, directly over the heart. It wasn't until half the saline was in that Kankuro twitched on the table. The jarring was enough to startle the assisting staff.

"Please hold him," Sakura said, still even-toned. She continued to press the sphere of liquid into Kankuro. The man on the table began to choke, saliva bubbling up at the corners of his mouth. As his nose began to run, Kankuro spasmed again, this time sitting up on his cot. This broke Sakura's concentration. Her brow furrowed as she met the panicked eyes of Temari.

"Hold him!" Sakura snarled.

This time, the staff muscled the shinobi's protesting form on the table. Sakura ignored his heavy breaths and gurgles as she shoved the rest of the sphere into him. The hand which had been resting on the right pec was now charged with chakra. She extracted the brine with it. The water formed a ball which floated a hair away from her palm.

Sakura held the ball up to her eye, staring at the purple-black blobs now within.

"The solids have crashed out the saline solution," she observed. "Whatever the poison is based in is not soluble in water."

The nurse who had supplied the basins asked, "Is that the poison, Haruno-san?"

"Hai. Please," here Sakura gestured to the now-empty bin. The nurse brought it closer to her, and Sakura dumped the ball into it.

By the end of the process, they had three basins full of saline, each with their own amount of near-black liquid pooling at the bottom.

"The poison has been removed," Sakura said. She ruffled through a pouch on her hip and withdrew several large syringes and a couple of detachable, sterile needles. As she prepare one syringe, screwing the needle on, she looked to the pale, relieved Temari.

"I trust you do not mind if I collect this?" Sakura said, plunging her syringe into the water until the needle reached the dark toxin. She pulled the plunger up to separate the poison. "For research."

"It is of no consequence," said a sober Baki.

"The next order of business," piped up Kakashi, "is to trail the Akatsuki who left with the Kazekage. The longer we delay pursuit the colder the trail gets."

During Kakashi's short observation, the hospital staff had filed out the room, wheeling a prone Kankuro along with them. Temari, Baki, Sakura, and Kakashi remained.

"Where you able to collect anything that may help our pursuit?" asked Sakura. Temari shook her head.

"The nin who discovered Kankuro recovered several of his broken puppets. We are waiting to see if there is anything among the wreckage."

"Did Kankuro say anything to the nin who found him?" This was Naruto. The other four jumped at the sound of his voice-he'd been so quiet they had forgotten he was with them.

"Sasori. He was a missing nin from our ranks some odd number of years ago," Baki explained. "Suna sent for an elder in the village that knew him. Chiyo-sama is resting in a dwelling not far from here. She may be able to help you think of an antidote."

"Is she willing to travel with us? We plan to leave as soon as the sun rises," Sakura asked. She had finished collecting the poison and was now standing with crossed arms.

"Chiyo-sama is aware of the urgency of this matter. We will inform her of your request," Baki returned.

"if you are planning to stay the night, we can prepare rooms for you; the other team you traveled with customarily takes one room to share with each other. Would you each like your own space, or do you wish to share?" Temari offered.

"We are flexible and will adapt to whatever you offer us," Kakashi supplied. "Please, show us to our rooms."

* * *

It was an hour before sun rise, and Team Eight was wide awake. In the wee hours of the morning, three sharp raps to their shared room had roused Kiba, the lightest sleeper of the trio. On the other side of the door was a solemn Sakura, who had presented them with a piece of red-and-black cloak. It was the cloak of Sasori, who had been the one to attack Kankuro, the shinobi the Haruno had healed. After an update, the pink-haired medic had left.

The name Sasori had been familiar to Kiba-his name was one they'd come across when Team Eight had researched the missing-nin of Suna. They had not found much on him, so their inquiries had ended quite soon. Earlier, before his team had retired yesterday, they'd done some basic research. An aide had told them the Akatsuki which had captured Gaara was a long-haired blonde man, who had been wearing a hitai-ate with a scratch through the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Rock. This matched with Hinata's observation of Kakuzu and Hidan.

"When are we to begin?"

"Sakura-san said we would leave at dawn." Kiba said. "The trail should still be viable. We've done more with less in the past." This was true. One of their first exercises with Kurenai as a genin team had been to track a shinobi friend of hers after a five-day lead and in Ame, which rained eighty percent of the time.

Shino was bent over, in the middle of a stretch made to loosen his hips, when he stated, "We know Sasori is a puppeteer and Deidara is a mixed-range fighter who relies on exploding clay. Our odds of winning in either fight is slim; it would be ideal to capture the Kazekage with little combat. But something is bothering me. Why?"

Hinata who had been sitting cross-legged, minding the web of chakra strings attached to the walls making up the corners of the room, said, "Because in all our findings we never uncovered the goal of the Akatsuki in the first place."

"Crime groups often operate out of pure disregard for common law, but there has been a select group of highly adaptive, alternative-justice groups who also break the law. The difference is those groups are often united under a shared goal."

"My hunch tells me the Akatsuki are a group of the second sort," Kiba supplied.

"I agree," nodded Shino. "We only know them to collect on bounties. The jump to kidnapping a Kage seems extreme. If it was an assassination attempt, no reasonable client would ever request an abduction."

"It seems as if they need the Kazekage for something unrelated to a simple bounty collection," Hinata concluded.

"So what about the Kazekage makes him a valuable mark?"

"In other cases, shinobi target other shinobi when they possess a kekkei genkai, like in the case of Orochimaru who has a special interest in them, or the Cloud which still has an obsession with the Byakugan-" at Hinata's wince, Shino shot her an apologetic look "-though the Kazekage's family possesses no such unifying trait."

"It seems odd they would target him, then," Hinata mused. "No particular stand-outs, no abilities that are uncommon-"

"Iie," Kiba interrupted, just as Hinata's eyes widened.

"You're right, Kiba-kun. Gaara-san transformed into a creature called Shukaku during the Suna invasion. I only caught a glimpse of the thing before I started my fight with Temari-san."

"Legend has it Shukaku is a giant raccoon native to the Land of Wind. He was a beast with tons of chakra. Back when Suna and Konoha were hostile, Suna started a habit of sealing Shukaku into their shinobi as a sort of last resort in case of war. The vessels of Shukaku are well-documented; Suna had a pattern of out-right threatening their neighbors in times of stressful relations."

"But what would the Akatsuki do with Shukaku?"

"Well, perhaps they are in need of the chakra the Ichibi can provide," Shino replied. This gave Kiba pause.

"Ichibi? One-tail?"

"Hai. There are legends of nine or ten chakra beasts that roam the Five Nations. Some of them have not been seen for decades. The assumption is some villages continuously seal the beasts into new vessels without allowing for the chance to escape. My clan trades tall tales of the Seven-Tails; it takes the appearance of a rhinocerous beetle. But the sealing process should be familiar. This is advanced fuinjutsu, Hinata, have you not heard of it before?"

"O-Only in passing," said Hinata. "It's always mentioned near literature which talks about summoning seals usually put in scrolls, so I assume the process is similar. I've never had an opportunity to observe the seals themselves, not in a single scroll I've ever read. The information must be classified."

Kiba rubbed a hand over his chin. "But why would the Akatsuki only want _one_ beast? If it was me, I'd take them all. Just to have them."

Shino shook his head, adjusting his shades. "That is unimportant at this juncture. Our focus is to recover the Kazekage. Is it safe to assume a chakra beast sealed into a human container could be removed?"

It was a few moments before Hinata answered. "Hai. When some nin summon from scrolls, the scroll disintegrates after one use. In other cases, the scroll is reusable. The difference depends on the summoner and the seals used."

"And the chances the Akatsuki would care about preserving the Kazekage's life?"

Hinata didn't answer.

"This is conjecture. We will not know what to expect until we manage to recover Suna's leader," Shino said after some time.

Kiba bit his tongue. There was something about the air around here-ever since they'd been deployed on this mission, he'd felt it. There was a difference between charting the Akatsuki's movements and engaging with them directly. Team Eight, or Team Bingo, was a mixed, multipurpose team, sure, but firstly they were a team suited to tracking. Not combat.

If the Akatsuki were after big fish, like the Ichibi, and were able to subdue the Kazekage, then there was a good chance their team would sustain considerable damage if they chose to interfere. Akamaru shifted against Kiba's side with a whine. Kiba ran a hand through the canine's fur as he thought. Additionally, if the Akatsuki did not plan on stopping at the Ichibi, but intended to collect the rest of them, that would be even more of a problem. What would they need all that chakra for?

What would _anyone_ need that much chakra for?

* * *

This is the second chapter.

Thank you for reading!


End file.
